Love For Haitian Food is easily one of the most popular Haitian-American food blogs. Created by Manie Chery, a Haitian-American foodie, the vlog has thousands of views on Youtube, a highly-trafficked website, and an Instagram account that gets reposted by lovers of Haitian food. For the video recipe tutorials the vlogger presents traditional and non-traditional Haitian cooking recipes with a Haitian-American touch. Follow your fave chick Kreyolicious as I interview the mind behind this foodie venture.

Kreyolicious: Tell us about yourself and your childhood memories you have of food and cooking.
I was a skinny kid…still pretty slim. They used to have to force me to eat a lot unless it was something I liked, like chicken and banann peze… P.S. My older brother and I called every meat chicken [Laughter]. I was not interested in cooking as a kid. My mom would be in the kitchen and I’d be watching cartoons. But at about age twelve, I learned how to make spaghetti—Italian style).

Kreyolicious: Who was instrumental in making you the cook you are today?
Definitely my mom, as I grew older when she was in the kitchen she would say, Vin aprann fè manje [come learn how to whip together a meal]. I honestly didn’t care at the time. But I did notice that my family always asked her to cook for family functions and then they would rave about the food. I was impressed by that, and figured if I wanted people to rave about my food, I’d better learn from her.

Kreyolicious: What made you start your vlog?
Well, in my mid-twenties—I’m thirty something now—I realized that I couldn’t cook anything else well enough besides pasta. I figured there were other young Haitian-Americans who also didn’t know how to cook their favorite Haitian dishes. While searching for recipe videos, I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for. So, I decided to create it. Recipes for Haitian food with visuals that the cooking-challenged could easily follow.

This concludes PART I of the interview with Love for Haitian Food vlogger Manie Chery. Be sure to watch out for Part II. Meanwhile…